Saturday, February 2

And what have you been doing?

Well hello there, if there is anyone out there. I barely come here anymore so how can I expect you to visit? At any rate, I have the best intentions and keep meaning to post more around here, but then, you know, I end up knitting instead or watching movies or running errands. And so on.

Our lives here in Santa Fe are pretty quiet most of the time...no rock shows to report on or embarrassing party pictures to post. Just me, my husband, our two cats and the days passing by. In the best of ways.

So, I am just going to ramble on in no particular order about what we've been doing. Or not doing.

We don't go to movies very often, but this past week, we went to see No Country For Old Men. We both liked it and in fact, felt it was one of the best new movies we've seen in a long time. I highly recommend seeing it if you haven't yet (it's been showing for awhile) and it's still playing at your local movie theater. It's worth seeing on the big screen. A few days later, I went to see Juno and I absolutely loved it. Imagine that, two of the best movies I have seen in a long time, all in one week. Next up, The Savages.

It's been bitterly cold for the past month or so. We had a break for about a week and then it started again. I guess once February rolls around, no matter where I live, I am just done with winter. Right now I am tired of freezing at home, freezing at work and wearing the same damn outfits every week because I don't have that many sweaters. Not that we moved here expecting a warm winter - I grew up here, I know that it gets cold - but the low temperatures that we've had are unusual for Santa Fe. It's been anywhere from 0 to 10 degrees for many mornings. That's cold. The saving grace is the sunshine. The afternoons are always somewhat tolerable just because the sun warms things up. And while I have had the winter blues for a couple of days, I think the daily sunshine has also saved me from a longer period of the winter doldrums. (Knock on wood.) So come on Spring! No matter that Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow.

Have I mentioned that it's been bitterly cold here? Oh yeah, I just did. And our cozy little home is not so cozy. We have gas wall heaters and a couple of electric baseboard heaters and they are just not that efficient. If I stand directly in front of the heater, it's nice and warm. Anywhere else, not so warm. And gas prices here are so high that even though we freeze half the time, we still have to pay out the ass for it. The utilities for our much smaller house here are significantly higher than they were for our four-bedroom house with a basement and an attic in Pittsburgh. Nothing like living in an expensive city!

Oh, earlier today while browsing Flickr, I discovered that Polaroid 779 film has been discontinued. Sucks. Fortunately I have a few packs in the fridge, but still, I wish I had gone ahead and ordered more in early January when I was ordering other film. It's already being listed on Ebay for exorbitant prices. The fact that both Adorama and B&H are both out of Polaroid Spectra film made me panic and I ordered some from a place via Amazon. Hopefully it shows up as the last time I ordered from this place, they just randomly canceled my order. Apparently Polaroid is going to stop manufacturing the OneStep cameras this year, or maybe they already have, I already forgot the specifics. That's not the end of world since I have plenty of OneStep cameras, but it doesn't bode well for the continuing production of the regular old Polaroid 600 film. One day it too will be gone. And what a sad day that will be. In the meantime, I may have to buy a bunch of the 4-packs at Sam's Club before they disappear.

My trouble with insomnia continues although I am sleeping better than I was there for awhile. I don't have trouble falling asleep at night, I have trouble staying asleep. Or maybe I don't actually have insomnia, I just have two bratty cats. Anyway, I've started keeping a "sleep journal" by the bed. Basically I just keep track of what time I go to bed, what I eat and drink, what time(s) I wake up...I don't know, I am just trying to figure out if there is a pattern to my insomnia. From what I read online, as you get older, the worse you sleep. Fabulous! Another thing I do every night is pop in the ol' earplugs. I actually hate having them in my ears, but they do help in blocking out the cat noise. The cats are pretty smart though. The past three or four nights, Rocky has been lobbing himself onto to the bed causing the bed to rock back and forth. I can't even begin to tell you how annoying this is, particularly at two in the morning. If that doesn't rouse one of us, he starts smackdown time with Simon. Now that Simon is sleeping on Will, at least he gets the brunt of the smackdown. And if that doesn't work, Rocky's final tactic is to stand on my back, forcing himself to weigh as much as possible. That usually works because it seriously feels like he is trying to crush me. Yes, our worlds revolve around the cats.

Other than going to movies, not sleeping well and freezing to death, we haven't been doing a whole lot. Working, of course. My job is slow right now and Will is heading into super crazy busy time with a de-installation/installation happening next week. I've been knitting pretty constantly for the past month or so. I love it, although I need to move on from the hat making kick soon. Hats are just so quick; I love the instant gratification. My football obsession has subsided since the Steelers lost their first play-off game and every other team that I was for during the play-offs lost as well. Now I am stuck rooting for the Giants tomorrow. Because we all know how I feel about the Patriots. Hate them. With a passion. I started feeling nauseous this morning as I read the "Tom Brady Is Perfect" article in the Post-Gazette. Gag. Sure, they'll be making history tomorrow if they win, but do I care? No. I find them to be entirely unlikable. Not to mention the cheating. Um, Mom taught me that cheaters never win but apparently that's not true. And god, I hate to even mention Arlen Specter, but I have to say, I always wondered myself why Goodell trashed all the evidence. Oh well, whoever wins tomorrow, I'm actually just looking forward to it all being over so I can have my Sundays back again.

On the music front, I've been listening to the Robert Plant/Alison Krauss CD (Raising Sand) that Will gave me for Christmas. Also Led Zeppelin Mothership, the latest Cat Power record, Jukebox, and the soundtrack from Juno. I love the soundtrack from Juno. Love it. The Cat Power record is good too, but after a few listens, it still is nowhere near being my favorite Cat Power record. I think I prefer it when she does her own stuff. I am sure there are a zillion other albums out that I should be listening to, but I am bad at keeping up with the music stuff especially without CC to burn stuff for me. Oh, I got the new Mary J. Blige too which I dig.

Okay, wow, that was long-winded. Back to knitting now. Go Giants! Hope ya'll have a fantastic weekend.